Q50 born to race
Eau Rouge is best-handling sports sedan yet
MILFORD PROVING GROUNDS, Engl a nd — Infiniti would very much prefer that I not act so surprised. Or that I at least try contain my incredulity. Their version — or at least my take on their version — would be I had such confidence in their Q50 mid-sized luxury sedan that the addition of the greatest sports-car engine to ever come out of Japan — the firebreathing, Porsche-humiliating 3.8-litre VR38DETT V-6 that powers Nissan’s fearsome GT-R — would be an instant supercar-challenging sports sedan.
For those of you who don’t know what a GT-R is, the VR38’s qualifications challenge even supercars. There may be only six pistons, but two turbochargers force feed their combustion chambers and 545 horsepower are trying to twist the driveshafts into submission.
All this is stuffed into a Q50, a light sports sedan whose good looks and fourdoor practicality are backed up by the superlative rigidity of a chassis that won’t get tied into knots by the GT-R’s frame tube-twisting 466 pound- feet of torque, says Infiniti’s global chief marketability engineer, Jerry Hardcastle.
That’s the public relations message. And what could possibly go wrong with that?
Well, the 466 lb-ft. of torque, actually. Or, more accurately, what that 466 lb-ft. of torque would do to the prototype’s gearbox were it loosed on its unprotected torque converter. You see, the one mandate Hardcastle was given in bringing the Eau Rouge to life is it be a parts-bin special — all its components had to be sourced within the Nissan/Renault empire.
Hardcastle first tried shoehorning the GT-R’s transaxle — a six-speed double-clutch affair mounted to the rear axle that would have been perfect for the Eau Rouge — into the Q50 chassis, but unfortunately that would have meant forgoing the rear seats, largely negating the four-door Eau Rouge’s raison d’être. The only other thing even remotely capable of harnessing the GT-R’s might within the Nissan empire was the sevenspeed automatic that sees yeoman duty in the 5.6-litre V-8-powered Q70. The problem is — besides the obvious that anything remotely GT-R-like deserves more than a squishy-shifting slushbox — the Q70 box is rated for an absolute maximum of 442 lbft. of torque.
And, unfortunately, you can tell. Oh, you won’t know it from the Eau Rouge’s top speed, which is just this side of I’m-going-to-pee-my-pants scary: Infiniti, despite having reduced maximum torque (accomplished by simply retarding the ignition timing), managed to squeeze another 15 peak horsepower from Nissan’s already formidable 545-hp supercar.
What’s missing, though, is a little of that mid-range grunt that makes the GT-R the terror of corner exits. What’s truly special about the GT-R isn’t its 300-plus km/h top speed or even, truth be told, its three-second zero-to-100 km/h acceleration, but its incredible 3,500 rpm grunt that sees the twice turboed Nissan squirt out of corners faster than anything this side of a McLaren P1.
So, what’s very captivating about this transmogrification is that the Eau Rouge is but a transmission away from replicating the GT-R’s incredible performance and devastating the rest of the super saloon segment.
Suggestions for a worthy transmission are the MCT Speed-Shift seven-speed that powers some AMGed Mercedes (now a partner, so it qualifies for that aforementioned parts-bin designation) or sourcing a double-clutch manumatic (a far superior solution that would, however, be more expensive).
All you wealthy patrons of the art of the straightened apex might consider getting on the honker to your local Nissan representative detailing your wish — and, more importantly, willingness to pay — for a decent tranny lest the poor Eau Rouge be unnecessarily hobbled by an inferior gearset.
Otherwise, the Eau Rouge’s powertrain is darn near perfect. Viewed in isolation, it’s a potent affair, its 560 horses making driving all four of the meaty 255/35ZR20 Pirelli PZeros absolutely necessary lest all that fancy Italian rubber goes up in smoke. Zero to 100 km/h is rated only as less than four seconds, though I suspect this is really closer to the GT-R’s three.
And surprise, Infiniti has been able to civilize that engine. What feels crude and stressed in the GT-R is all luxury-segment sophistication in the Eau Rouge, happily chugging along at lowspeed and (mostly) wonderfully smooth.
Even its exhaust note is luxury-supercar sophisticated in Eau Rouge guise.
But the Eau Rouge may be the first car for which the exhaust system’s allure is visual rather than aural.
Peruse the static pictures of the flat red Infiniti’s hindquarters and you’ll see two flared stainless-steel trumpets blending elegantly into the dramatic carbon-fibred rear fascia. What they don’t show is that the GTR’s turbochargers generate so much heat the entire exhaust expands as much as 40 millimetres when you’re giving the Eau Rouge the Full Monty.
What’s remarkable about all this, however, is despite all this talk of horsepower and exhaust systems, the real surprise is the GT-R engine is only the Eau Rouge’s secondbest attribute. More amazing is nothing in the segment — not Audi’s fearsome RS7, not Mercedes’ elegant CLS 63 AMG or even BMW’s much lauded M5 — can replicate the lightness of steering and sheer unflappability of the Eau Rouge prototype around Milford’s Hill Circuit. The Eau Rouge hustled round the track like Infiniti had bred the Q50 all along for these racetrack shenanigans.
The result is a delicacy of steering superior to any I have ever experienced in a Japanese sports sedan, even trumping the mighty M5.
The rest of the chassis is up to snuff as well. The suspension has been upgraded, the prototype incorporating three-stage damping to allow engineers more leeway in testing.
In its current guise, the Eau Rouge’s torque split favours the front, a heresy in a segment that almost demands a rearward bias. Nonetheless, if reverting to a traditional sports car configuration is going to futz with the current combination of steering and grip, I’ll admit myself a heretic and implore Infiniti’s engineers to leave well enough alone.
And therein lies the source of that incredulity.
I came to Milford ready to be impressed with one of the most fearsome engines in the business stuffed into what I thought was an unprepossessing hull.
I left with an admiration for what may be the best handling luxury sports sedan yet.